It has been almost a year, since U.S. Border Patrol Agent Romualdo Barrera shot and killed unarmed Guatemalan Immigrant Claudia Patricia Gómez González in the Rio Bravo border vecinity.
By H. Nelson Goodson
Hispanic News Network U.S.A.
April 3, 2019
Laredo, Texas - Almost a year has passed and the FBI including the U.S. Customs and Border Protection have yet to determine, if U.S. Border Patrol Agent Romualdo Barrera committed cold blooded murder when he fatally shot undocumented Guatemalan immigrant Claudia Patricia Gómez González, 20, as she ran in the heavy bush from him near the U.S. border in the Rio Bravo vicinity. Gómez González, 20, originally from San Juan Ostuncalco, Guatemala was fatally shot behind the head on May 23. 2018 by a U.S. Border Patrol Agent Barrera in Rio Bravo, which is about 13 miles South of Laredo in Webb County. Barrera has not been officially identified by the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officials as the agent who actually killed Gómez González in 2018. Barrera is a 15-year veteran for the CBP. Agent Barrera at the time hired George Altgelt, a Laredo local attorney to represent him while the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Texas Rangers continued to investigate González's death.
The CBP hasn't officially released Agent Barrera's full name and photo, but his name had been circulating in multiple Laredo protests organized by local immigrant right groups seeking justice for González.
Agent Barrera in 2018 at first gave a preliminary report that he was attacked by a group of undocumented immigrants with a blunt object (a 2x4 piece of lumber), but later the CBP revised their press release saying that the agent was attacked and didn't mention any weapons used by the undocumented immigrants.
Marta Martinez, the woman who posted multiple Facebook videos from the crime scene says, that authorities didn't find any 2x4 pieces of lumber where Agent Barrera killed González because there were none. Martinez confirmed that González was faced down on the grassy bush area adjacent to her property and bleeding from her left side of her face. González had suffered a fatal bullet wound from behind the head. Martinez heard at least one shot fired, but another witness heard several shots.
The Webb County Coroner's office only identified González as the victim, but at the time, the coroner didn't release any details about how she died or injuries from the fatal shooting.
At least three other undocumented male immigrants were taken into custody in the area, but no details have been released by the CBP, FBI or the Texas Rangers about their testimony concerning the González death.
The three other undocumented men that accompanied González and detained were identified by the Guatemalan government as Ader Cabrera Sánchez, 18, Carlos Pérez Vicente, 20, and Damian Mendez Peñalonzo, 18. Apparently, one of the aunts of the victim told a news media outlet that a smuggler was had charged more than $11,000 dollars to smuggle González into the U.S.
According to González's mother, her daughter left to the U.S. to seek employment because there was no work in her village.
Crossing into the U.S. without legal status for the first time is a federal civil offense, which might result in deportation depending on the circumstances and is not a federal criminal offense.
The CBP and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are known as the most corrupt U.S. Department of Homeland Security agencies in the U.S., which rogue agents have killed undocumented immigrants while in custody and none have been charged or prosecuted in those murders.
In June 2010, an undocumented man who died while being deported by U.S. Custom and Border Protection agents was ruled a homicide. The San Diego Medical Examiner's Office reported that Anastasio Hernandez Rojas, 32, died of cardiac arrest shortly after being beaten with a baton and then tasered by multiple agents after he resisted from being deported into Mexico. Rojas was handcuffed and his legs were bound as well. His family after years of seeking justice received $1M in a lawsuit, but none of the agents who were involved in Rojas homicide were never charged or prosecuted for his murder.
According to CNN, the CBP has failed to account for 564 deaths in border crossing's stats into the U.S.
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